Will you be my Valentine?

I only ever send one Valentine card each year so I hadn't intended making one this year as I still had one left over fom a challemge last year! But I was inspired to make one when I received this month's Simon Says kit.  It's also quite unusual for me to make something as soon as get the kit, in fact the January one still hasn't been touched!

I am entering this into Simon Says Wednesday challenge which is Anything Goes, Addicted to Stamps & More is Clean and Simple - not sure whether this fits the criteria so feel free to delete it if it doesn't!
Just us Girls has Use sentiment as a focal point

 

Casology - Electric

I have followed the Casology challenge for some time but never entered for one reason or another. But when I saw the current challenge cue word was "electric" -

 

  sorry no pun intended - I knew exactly what I wanted to use.

 

 Last month's Simon Says Stamp kit was sitting by my desk, opened but unused and it had the perfect set of stamps in it. originally I was going to mat the layer onto yellow but it didn't look right, then I tried black, which was better, but preferred it with no mat. I should have stopped there but I doodled  some faux stitching round the edge and now I wish I hadn't. Sometimes less is very definitely the way to go! As Simon Says challenge is Anything Goes I'm also going to take this over there as well.

Simon Says - Travel/Cityscape

I've dusted down the Craft Robo and been having a play. I had downloaded the Toronto cityscape some time ago with the idea of using it on a scrapbook page when I finally get round to scrapping our holiday from almost 3 years ago now. We started the tour of the Fall colours in Toronto and ended in New York.It was a fantastic holiday and one we intend to repeat some time .Anyway back to crafting, when I saw the challenge at Simon Says I straight away thought of this scene. After 3 attempts at brayering the background, which all went in the bin I finally used some colour dusters (like little shaving brushes) which were lurking at the back of a drawer.

Not perfect but I'm quite pleased with the result. Tomorrow you'll get to see the mess I made while creating it!

Lemon and Lavender

The Crafty Cow forum has a monthly challenge which I set and this year we have decided to have a sketch each month. This is the card I have made for the July challenge .

The paper is from some old Elusive Images paper I had, the stamp is from Kanban,coloured with Copics and the flowers were punched from the paper.  am aslo entering it in the Simon Says challenge which this week has a theme of lemon and lavender.

Sweet Spring

Here is today's effort!  I used the sketch from this week's Totally Papercraft, the papers are from Basic Grey, the image from Little Claire's Designs coloured with Copic Ciao pens, the sentiment I think is a Woodware one and the ribbon was from my Mother's Day flowers!! Perfect for cardmaking! I am entering this into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - For a Child

The ABC Challenge - Sugar and Spice

Lili of the Valley - Happy Birthday

Totally Papercrafts- Sketch Challenge

Christmas in August

The Simon Says Challenge this week is Christmas in August. I'm not geared up to doing Christmas cards yet - all my Christmassy things are packed away as I have limited space except for one or two bits I've bought recently. This stamp "Sleigh Bear" from Hobby Art being one of them and the Penny Black Crystalline stamps another. I stamped the stars in Brilliance Moonlight White on blue pearlescent card, tore some pale blue glitter paper for the snow and stamped and embossed the bears in black. I coloured the sled with a red Glaze pen, then added the tag on a scrap of red ribbon.

First Scrapbook Page

The Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week is for anything but a card. I've been thinking about having a go at scrapbooking so have made my first page for the challenge using the sketch from Papertake Weekly challenge - so 2 in 1! Couldn't get a very good picture though - normally I scan my cards but obviously this is too big for that!

Distressed Flowers

It has been quite some time since I've entered a challenge - other things have got in the way! The Simon Says challenge this week is "Distressed" not my favourite thing to do I have to say. I decided to stick to simple and stippled distress inks onto a cream card blank then sponged the edges for the background. I then crumpled some coredinations card and sanded it then punched flowers out. The strip behind the flowers was torn and inked. Not quite my thing but reasonably pleased with the result.

Oriental Family

I made this card for the Simon Says Stamp challenge this week. They are celebrating the Simon Says Stamp Blog's 1st birthday. they are also having a blog hop on Sunday - why not pop over and see what's going on?

I used the Simon Says Stamp My Family set of stamps - stamped in black then heat embossed and coloured with twinkling H2Os. The flowers on the left are stamped and embossed in blue and red pearl lustre embossing powders, ribbon is from my stash and the sentiment is from Woodware. Originally I scanned this but the flowers didn't show up.

I do wish Blogger would sort out the ongoing problem with the followers gadget as I have terrible problems getting on the Simon Says blogs. Still getting the message that operation is aborted and when I press the back button the page sometimes reloads but then stops me doing anything else until I close Internet Explorer down. So at the moment I'm having to look at some blogs through Firefox!

Flower Trail

I've noticed while entering challenges that the majority of cards entered are of the cute variety. So have decided to be different today and made this card in the Tracy Dutton of Lavinia Stamps style! I have stamped the leaves in Versafine vintage sepia and the flowers are stamped in Brilliance pearl orchid and pearl purple and Versacolour Orchid on pale pink pearlised paper. Then I added liquid pearls and pink glitter. I mounted this on brown coredinations cardstock and added to a white DL card. As the theme on SimonSays Stamp challenge is pink and brown I am entering this. Hope you like it!

Simon Says Challenge - Tim Holtz

The challenge this week is:

WE LOVE TIM HOLTZ :-)

We have an absolutely fabulous challenge for you this week !! We are going to get creative with Tim Holtz gorgeous products :-) If you don't have any you can still join in, just make something 'Inspired by Tim' He has made some awesome video's for you to see and you can see them here We know that for some of you you may feel that this is a BIG challenge and difficult. But it isn't ! You can do cute cards not necessarily 'grunge' Just add a torn edge with some ink dabbed on and you can enter !! Or just add some glitter glue like stickles !! Probably every card anyone makes can be entered for this challenge ! AND YOU CAN COMBINE WITH AS MANY CHALLENGES AS YOU LIKE :-) So you have NO EXCUSE :-)Heidi is once again offering a very generous prize of a $25 Shopping spree to the Simon Says Stamp Store but this week it is with a twist :-) You are to choose Tim Holtz goodies :-)

Now the only Tim Holtz products I have are some Distress ink pads and some Alcohol Inks. Love the ink pads but haven't been brave enough yet to use the inks! So here is my entry using Distress ink pads in Vintage Photo, Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint and Mustard Seed plus a smidgeon of Cosmic Shimmer Dark Bronze Mica powder.The stamps are from Elusive Images.

Patchwork Elephant

The Simon Says Challenge has changed to weekly instead of fortnightly so had to get a move on this week The theme is "One for the Boys". Now the card I did last week would have fitted this perfectly but thought I'd better do another. I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday which fitted it nicely. The image is from Pollycrafts and also fits in with the challenge on Papertake Weekly which is to feature Animals - so three challenges in one- how cool is that! The papers are from Papermania and this is my first go at colouring with Copics.

Simon Says Challenge Recipe

The Simon Says Challenge is a recipe set by the very talented Lorraine. The recipe is to use 2 papers, 3 buttons and 1 ribbon. Here is my interpretation. The papers are Papermania and the stamp is " Skateboard Dude" from Woodware.

Recycle Challenge

Simon Says Challenge is to recycle. This is my card. The rose patterned paper was off my Valentine's Day roses and the raffia was from a Mother's day bouquet. The stamp is from Elusive Images and was embossed with red sparkle embossing powder on a scrap of cream vellum.The whole is mounted on a peachy pearl card.

Simon Says Challenge

The Simon Says Challenge is now open. Their first theme is yellow and green. This is the card I have made for it. The stamps are from Hobby Art, coloured with Marvy le Plume markers and topped with a bit of clear Stardust glaze. Hope you like it!